Hampshire College

Hampshire College
City:	Amherst, Massachusetts
Type:	Private
Students:	1,400
Faculty:	114
Colors:	Purple, blue, red, maroon, white
Expense/yr:	$56,000,000
Endowment:	$40,000,000
Website:	hampshire.edu

Hampshire College is a small private liberal arts collage in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Controversy

After the 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump was elected, some students began to riot. Among other things, they burned the university's U.S. flag sometime before dawn on Veteran's Day. They claimed that it was a symbol of "racism and hatred" and it should not be displayed. The university promptly replaced the flag, and flew it at half-staff, "...both to acknowledge the grief and pain experienced by so many and to enable the full complexity of voices and experiences to be heard." However, this was seen as disrespectful to the national symbol of mourning, so they soon decided to remove the flag entirely.
The removal of the flag caused even more disturbance, as many saw this as the wrong response, especially in response to the hateful act on Veteran's Day. People soon gathered in protest, including some veterans. As veteran Jerry Maguire told WWLP-TV, "They took down my flag, they have a right to that, I’m here to defend their right to do that but I want them to understand how bad that hurts me." Hundreds joined in protest against this decision, including Springfield's mayor, Domenic Sarno. Sarno pointed out that "For the students here and the president and board of trustees have risen from what the veterans sacrificed, this flag and not to fly the flag on this campus if you were in some other countries around the world it would be handled very, very differently."